The Pagan/Druid Male

A bit of fun…

Us Pagans, and Druids, take great pride in the openness and the lack of dogma within our traditions, and that there is no stereotype, but I wonder. You see, I think I could make a list of traits that pretty much sums up your average Pagan male. Okay here they are:

1) Has, or once had, long hair – all of us go a bit thin on top, and at some point the old razor or clippers might come out, but at some point the Pagan male had long hair.

2) A love of Real Ale, Guinness, or Cider/Scrumpy – the Pagan male is rarely seen drinking Lager.

3) Music – the Pagan male is either a folkster, a metalhead/rocker, or a Goth, or once has been at some point in their life. It is the rare Pagan male who regularly downloads the latest pop songs.

So if there are any short-haired, lager drinking pop fan Pagan males out there. Do let me know – I think you might be a rare breed!

31 responses to “The Pagan/Druid Male”

  1. Lol – That sums up most of my male Pagan friends to a tee 🙂 apart from the ones that are Gay that is – They tend to be far more chameleon in their appearance but even they have goth tendencies!

    As for my OH – He currently may describe himself as a reluctant pagan with no defined path and no desire to find one but he’s got long(ish) hair (me and the kids think he looks an awful lot like James May of Top Gear), loves Led Zep, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and early Punk and has a distinct fondness for Real Ale and rather enjoys making homebrew as well

  2. Well, I don’t enjoy Lager one bit, but I have short hair (and I’m not thinning on top!), a short 5’o’clock shadow beard, and I listen to everything from traditional folk to classical to glitch to pop. As for drink, I’ll take a good ale, stout, porter, mead, wine, scotch, vodka – pretty much anything but lager!

    My own music is more like Peter Gabriel or Sting in style…So I think I may be an out-of-the-ordinary Bard…

  3. Hmm… Red rag and all that! I’d tick 2 out of three…

    I’d suggest that (1) might also include “would love to have long hair” (just don’t have the patience to not get it cut!)

    Of course, the lager is a duff steer anyway – when you compare Fullers Discovery against Budwieser Budvar against Leffe Blond (all that could have been considered lagers at some point) against Heineken…

    .. But hey! Cheers!

  4. lol . Long Hair eh? Well mine used to be curly . I now shave it off. I once tried to grow it but it grew up and up i looked like an extra from a black comedy . It looked great when it was wet but soon as it dryed …up it went 2 foot in the air.
    I agree with the rest though Damh, I love real ale MMMmm Caffrey’s is my tipple… Well the odd Lager but always Export 1664 or Stella

    Lee
    pbn

  5. Dear Damh, regrettably I think you’re correct! Point 1) I haven’t cut my hair since before I was 14, some 42 years ago (Sorry! Simply couldn’t resist getting “that” number in somewhere!).Point2) I do drink lager by choice when in a pub because I mostly don’t like the taste of many real ales as they always have too many hops for comfort (give me home brewed Victorian yarrow beer any day!!).I loathe the taste of Guinness.My favourite tiple is dry white wine, preferably Uzbeki (the best in the former Soviet Union) or Bulgarian.I must admit to enjoying cider, again preferably dry & from the cask, but I usually only drink this at supper parties or when in the company of King Arthur & others of like mind.Finally,Point3)
    Normally I listen to the Third almost all the time & I have a fondness for Early Music.I also like G&S very much (shock! horror) particularly “Ruddigore” – but I have to confess to an early grounding in folk music in the lat 60’s. So,I guess, that altho’ I don’t think many who know me would consider me a typical p/d male, I must be!!!

  6. Yes I’m afraid I fit into all of those three pefectly but I must confess being a bit of a goth and rock fan I have this one big problem that I need to confess.

    You see ……….I’m blonde.

    Sounds like a cue for a song Damh 🙂

  7. LOL My wife keeps commenting on my ‘pagan hairstyle’ which I started growing 18 months ago as a symbolic thing to mark my departure from christianity. And I love it! (Kids at school aren’t too sure!)
    Love cider
    Love Runrig, Caperciallie and Simon & Garfunkel – do I fit?

    • Thank Eala, gave me an early morning laugh : )

      Please do show your dad the blog and ask him if he’s a closet pagan? And let me know what he says?

  8. I don’t think I’m a rare breed in contradicting much of the image you present, though I certainly recognise it as prevalent. But then, it’s actually a male heterosexual pagan image to which you refer–quite often, gay male pagans are much less inclined to appear as if they go to the same barber as every other male, and much more inclined to be individual in their tastes in music, fashion, favourite beverages, and so on.

    Of course, it could be argued that the stereotypes you speak of are making their own choices that happen to be the same as lots of other people’s–but then, I’d only partly agree, as the truth is more mixed. Peer group approval is important, it’s human nature, and as applicable to a collective of pagans as it is a bunch of schoolgirls.

    That’s why, and I’m obviously speaking from personal understanding, you often find gay men who are young are rather camp and grow into themselves as they get older. They try to fit into an image already extant; some stay, most go on to find their true selves, which generally turn out to be less easy to pinpoint (or, for some, target) as stereotypical. Heck, some are even very, very butch… Some from the word go!

    But for every trend, every supposition, there is always difference to contend with, appreciate, and note.

    As a 41-year-old gay pagan who prides myself on being individualistic, I was less so when younger and even today it’s nice sometimes to be part of a crowd. Yet while I love your music, Damh, I don’t think anyone would ever be capable of convincing me that I’m the only pagan with a love of disco, trance, dance and–from back in the day–the still much appreciated likes of Bananarama (who, by the way, were not a manufactured band and were one of the most successful girl bands of all time). And I remain an ardent fan of Pet Shop Boys. But I also have Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, and all manner of other stuff in my music collection… So nyah to the naysayers! >;-)

    I will admit, however, to goth tendencies if not ever having been an actual goth, for the idea of black being the predominant colour of choice, perhaps with the occasional bit of purple, never did appeal as my boredom threshold would have been passed within a week. And only some goth music appeals, generally the obvious stuff – The Cure, a bit of The Cult – and the campness of Strawberry Switchblade. Goths, of course, have now been cloned and appear as nu-model EMOs much the chagrin of the goth generation that was around to watch the likes of Gary Numan making his first TV appearance.

    I do believe there’s an ‘old guard’ in pagan circles, who should, in common with all elders, be respected for what they bring to the community table. But I also think there’s no way anyone’s going to convince me that newer generations are going to wake up one day and all look like (the utterly wonderful) Bill Bailey.

    The pagan community is, certainly today, far more diverse than the narrow stereotypes most loved (for purposes of derision) by the mainstream media, and it shares that unacknowledged, unappreciated, kept-hidden diversity with the gay community (it seems every gay character in soaps these days absolutely has to be a bright young thing – you’d be forgiven for thinking we gays die off around 30, in Logan’s Run-style purges! We’re also supposed to be rich, and sport six-packs… I wish (only half-heartedly)! >;-)

    Love and blessings to you and yours.

  9. I can think of a few short-haired male pagans. 🙂

    Philip mentioned on Friday that you’d hurt your back. Hope you’re feeling better soon. x

  10. I know so many Pagan males who fit the stereotype you describe,my other half amongst them.
    You’ve missed out one of the great give aways for any Pagan, a bottle of mead,full,opened or empty,& mostly Moniack,lol.

  11. Met you at Canterbury and bought 2 of the albums. (already had the other two).

    You are the first musician I have ever spoken too after a live event. I was nervous. And I was the one spending the money!!!

    Real Ale, yes.

    Rock & folk yes,

    But Goth and long hair , no way never : – )

    And by day wearing a suit. and working in an office.
    I bet if you saw me in the street in “work mode”, you would never guess I really enjoy your music who has your CDs on all the time in my car.

    Where’s that new album you keep talking about??

  12. hahaha, sounds about right.
    im no anthropologist but theres a sound degree of external validity of ur descriptions.

    pretty much sums up me and my two pagan companions in new zealand.

    we dont meet many others even remotely similar in beliefs to us. but i find it impossible for a pagan-mind to feel lonely. =)

    oooh and yes yes, theres nothing like a bottle of scrumpy or cider chilling in an eddy on a hot summers afternoon while swimming in a cold river.

    but yeh i love the pagan ways of having no set ways… as if theres any other way to be living.

    thanks for ur music damh.
    it blew us kiwis away to hear sumthing sooooooo close to our own beliefs. very refreshing.

  13. I think you’re right on this one. I’m re-growing my hair after foolishly cutting it, and recently gave up lager for real ale. I also enjoy both folk and metal music, but I prefer folk metal over both of them 😀 there are some great pagan metal bands out there like Tyr and Amon Amarth.

  14. Short hair – check.
    Likes lager – check.
    Likes pop music – check.

    (But then I’d say my musical tastes are “eclectic”, I like some pop amongst a lot of other things.)

    I guess I am one of the rare breeds 😀

  15. Well I have short hair now, but before I converted to Paganism about 2 1/2 years ago, I had very long hair. Then I did go midlength black/blue for a while before cutting it short. No I sport short spiky hair, soon to be cut in the sides and dyed bright colours.

    Drinks wise, I seem to conform to the stereotype. I’m a Guinness guy, although I have been known to drink lager when I’m in the mood for something less heavy.

    Music… well I love all the music mentioned, but I think at core I’m a bit of a punk, thus the hair.

    This said, the vast majority of pagan males I’ve met conform to the average very closely, straight, gay and bi alike.

  16. Yes !

    You have right there . It pretty much sum up the picture of a pagan and it is a descriptiuon of myself as well !
    I love all kinds of Metal but prefer epic , power and folk metal .

  17. well my hair was longer but no more and i am rather partial to real ales and fine cider but play jazz and a mix of other music. Go as far as to say love all music.

  18. It has to be said this sums up most REAL bikers too, biker first, pagan second…. us Pagan women grow our hair long too.

  19. well i am a pagan male and i once had long hair but keep it short for my job now i like lager but i like a good ale too and im definately not a pop fan i’m a true metal head

  20. I guess I’m the anti-stereotype. I’ve shaved my head for the past 19 years, I can’t stand beer (Guinness is particularly disgusting), and I don’t have any particular affection for folk, metal, or goth music, although I will admit to liking the goth girl aesthetic. Perhaps these stereotypes, which are entirely true, as far as I’ve seen, are why I also don’t call myself a pagan.

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